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GA / ORGANIZED CRIME WRAP
STORY: GA / ORGANIZED CRIME WRAP
TRT: 3.26
SOURCE: UNTV/ UNODC
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 17 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN building
17 JUNE 2010, NEW YORK CITY
2. Zoom in, General Assembly podium
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
“States and markets are being infiltrated. Police and armies are being out-gunned. Security is under threat. The blueprint to counteract this threat already exists: the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three additional protocols. This year is the tenth anniversary of the Palermo Convention. Let us mark this milestone by sharpening the world’s leading international crime-fighting instrument.”
5. Zoom out, delegates
6. Wide shot, GA
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN office on drugs and crime:
“Criminals today are threatening the stability of nations, they are influencing elections in some countries, they are buying politicians, they are buying the military, in one word, they are buying power. Some governments are not able to resist for lack of resources, some others would be able to contain the problems but I fear they are showing some benign neglect, and I have in mind of course rich nations among them.”
8. Med shot, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN office on drugs and crime:
“Arresting some traffickers may divert the flows but it will not shut them off. Other criminals will fill the void as long as there is money to be made. Therefore, in addition to disrupting mafia groups, I believe that we should disrupt their markets. And of course we should crack down on those who are accomplices of criminals. There are so many white collar professionals; lawyers, accountants, bankers, realtors, who cover up mafia and launder mafia proceeds.”
10. Pan left, GA Hall
11. Various shots, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meeting with Roberto Maroni, Minister of the Interior, Italy and Angelino Alfano, Minister of Justice, Italy
FILE – UNODC - MAY 2007, COLOMBIA
12. Aerial shots, coca plantations
13. Wide shot, cocaine factory being burned
14. Various shots, coca being destroyed
FILE - UNODC – MAY 2007, CARIBBEAN
15. Various shots, naval ships intercepting cocaine
FILE – UNODC - 2005, MOROCCO
8. Police intercepting drugs
FILE – UNODC - AFGHANISTAN
16. Various shots, opium eradication
Top United Nations officials today (17 June) underscored the urgency of combating organized crime, which a new report has found is gaining in global reach and posing a greater threat to peace, development and even national sovereignty.
The Globalization of Crime examines major trafficking flows of drugs, firearms, counterfeit products, stolen natural resources; people trafficked for sex or forced labour and smuggled migrants, and offers ways to tackle these threats.
Produced by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the report also highlights the inadequacies of national responses to transnational crime, calling for global responses based on the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which was adopted in the Italian city of Palermo a decade ago.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the issue that “security is under threat” as organized crime has infiltrated states and markets, outgunning police and armies.
He stressed the need to use the measures contained in the Palermo Convention to combat money laundering, to confiscate and seize criminal assets, to end bank secrecy, to carry out joint investigations, to protect witnesses, to exchange information and to provide mutual legal assistance.
The Secretary-General called on nations to mark the tenth anniversary of the Convention “by sharpening the world’s leading international crime-fighting instrument.”
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa pointed out that the threat is not just economic, as “criminals today are threatening the stability of nations” by influencing elections; buying politicians, and the military.
He also spotlighted the difference between countries that are unwilling to fight organized crime and those which are unable to do so, urging stepped up development and technical assistance to reduce poor nations’ vulnerability.
He said that some governments “are not able to resist” due to a lack of resources, while others, particularly in rich nations, “are showing some benign neglect”.
The report found that in Europe alone, there are some 140,000 victims of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, generating $3 billion annually for their exploiters.
The continent is also home to the heroin market with the highest regional value of $20 billion, while Russia is the largest heroin consumer in the world at 70 tons. Narcotics claim the lives of up to 40,000 young Russians every year, twice the number of Red Army soldiers killed during the invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
In addition to calling for global responses based on the Palermo Convention, Costa appealed for the market forces behind these illicit trades to be disrupted.
He said that arresting traffickers “may divert the flows but it will not shut them off” as other criminals will fill the void as long “as there is money to be made”. He stressed “in addition to disrupting mafia groups, I believe that we should disrupt their markets”.
He also noted that “there are so many white collar professionals; lawyers, accountants, bankers, realtors, who cover up mafia and launder mafia proceeds.”
The Secretary General met with Italian Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni, and Minister of Justice Angelino Alfano.
In a related development, Chile today deposited an instrument of accession regarding the additional Protocol to the Palermo Convention to suppress the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms and ammunition.
This brings the number of States parties to the firearms Protocol to 81. The Convention’s two other Protocols relate to trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants.
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